The present invention is inclusive of a method, an apparatus and chemical products for cleaning petroleum equipment, preferably of the hydrocarbon processing type, wherein cleaning is performed by establishing a closed or semi-closed flow circulation loop, during the normal production operations of said equipment.
The present invention is further inclusive of a method, an apparatus and chemical products for increasing distillation yields of a petroleum plant.
The present invention is also inclusive of a monitoring system to verify the cleaning status during execution of the claimed method.
The present invention is still further inclusive of a method, an apparatus and chemical products for cleaning, degassing and decontamination of petroleum equipment, before maintenance.
The present invention realizes the cleaning of the equipment during the normal run of the plant it is a part of, without the need of excluding it from the production cycle and/or without the need of stopping production and/or the flow of the fluid which is normally flowing in said equipment. This is an improvement over the current state of the art.
By cleaning petroleum equipment with a closed or semi-closed flow circulation loop, the present invention realizes, among others (e.g., when compared to common mechanical cleaning systems), the following improvements: i) elimination of equipment decommissioning and/or opening and/or out of service; ii) cleaning time reduction; iii) recovery and reuse of fouling product; iv) achieving simultaneous cleaning of multiple equipment pieces; v) reduction of production loss arising from equipment being out of service.
The present invention also realizes a new design/engineering method to dimension petroleum equipment, wherein said dimensioning can be done without taking into account performance reduction due to fouling.
Other techniques are available in the state of the art which realize equipment cleaning on a closed flow circulation loop (none of these operate with a semi-closed flow circulation loop), but such techniques imply, the equipment and/or the plant they are part of, to be excluded from the production cycle or even the entire plant to be out of production. The present invention improves the state of the art by realizing the cleaning of the equipment and/or of the plant they are part of, without stopping the production cycle, during normal plant run.
The present invention also provides a yield increase and/or coke formation reduction or coke removal on catalysts in a petroleum plant.